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DISCOURSE, 



DELIVERED AT PLYMOUTH, MASS., 



DECEMBER 22, 1848. 



BY SAMUEL M,~ WORCESTER, D. D., 

Pastor of the Tahernacle Church, Salem.. 




SALEM : 

PUBLISHED BY HENRY WHIPPLE 
1849. 









^ 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 031069 



DISCOURSE. 



PROVERBS, xvn. 6. 

childken's children are the crown of old men, and the glory op 
children are their fathers. 

In respect to human happiness and glory, there is a 
remarkable difference between the words of the " holy- 
men who of old spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost," and those of other men generally, whatever their 
land or their language. Other men speak of happiness, 
without any reference to "joy in God," or "delight in 
his law " ; and of glory, when the Most High, who only 
is " great," " wonderful in counsel and excellent in work- 
ing," " is not in all their thoughts " of greatness, of wis- 
dom, and of excellency. But they, who, "at sundry 
times and in divers manners," have spoken of happiness 
and glory, in the name of the "Father of lights" and " the 
God of comfort," always speak of happiness, as but " the 
pleasure of sin," and of glory, as but " a vain show " and 
a fatal delusion, unless the " soul doth magnify the Lord," 
and the "spirit rejoice in God" the "Saviour." 

It is, therefore, undoubtedly to be understood, that the 
" old men " who would find the " crown " of their earthly 
satisfactions and hopes in " children's children," were 
those pre-eminently, who had feared the Lord from their 
youth, and whose "hoary head was a crown of glory," 



because "found in the way of righteousness." And while 
the ancient people of God accounted a numerous family 
and posterity a very special and signal favor, it was 
one of the most dreadful of all bitter experiences, to have 
sons and daughters, whose vicious and impious conduct 
would brin^v down their " grey hairs with sorrow to the 
grave." Hence "children's children " could never be the 
"crown " of the "old men," whom God would "not cast 
off in their old age," — unless they " walked in the stat- 
utes and ordinances of the law of the Lord," and gave 
promise of transmitting the legacy of a godly example to 
their own "children's children." 

" A man's descendants," says one of our wisest com- 
mentators, " ought to be his honor and comfort in old age. 
His children should be educated in such a manner, as may 
warrant a confidence that their pious and prudent conduct 
will render them such, and that they will train up their 
families in like manner ; and it is the duty of children, 
and children's children, to consult the credit of their pro- 
genitors, as far as it can be made consistent with superior 
obligations. Parents also should act in such a manner, 
that their children and posterity may be respected for 
their sakes, and have cause to rejoice in their relation to 
persons of such piety and wisdom. And thus it will be, 
in proportion as men attend to the dictates of heavenly 
wisdom." 

In this free exposition of the spirit of the significant 
and beautiful language of the text, we have, as I con- 
ceive, a just and very interesting view of the relation of 
children to parents, and of posterity to their ancestors. 
Natural talents and dispositions are very far from being 
always hereditary. Yet we often perceive as marked a 
likeness of intellectual endowments and original elements 
of character, between a parent and his offspring, and 
between progenitors and their progeny, as we ever see of 
correspondence and resemblance in the features of coun- 



tenance, which unequivocally proclaim kindred blood and 
a common lineage. And while " that which is bora of 
the Spirit, is spirit," by a divine and not a human genera- 
tion, we are so instructed by the " words which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth," and by the history of Providence, in 
respect to the covenant with Abraham, comprehending all 
believers in Christ among the Gentiles as well as the 
Jews, — that it should be accounted no strange thing, but 
a delightful fulfilment of the promises, if children, in 
this our beloved New England, should be found partakers 
of the richest of all the blessings of a God of love. And 
this too by their relation, not merely to parents, friends 
and benefactors whom they have seen and known, but to 
those (ore-fathers and fore-mothers, who, for our sakes, 
and for God's purposes, endured so much, and who have 
long since been translated from the duties, responsibilities, 
and trials of earth to a glorified immortality in heaven. 

The nations of this Western hemisphere and of the 
Old world, are now a spectacle of extraordinary interest 
to every intelligent and reflecting man in this country. 
We have hopes or fears, or hopes and fears, for our own, 
and for other lands. These are different in different indi- 
viduals, but in all are materially affected by personal 
religious principles and opinions. We may be unanimous 
in believing and proclaiming our own, our "native land, 
of every land the pride," while yet we may widely 
differ, when we trace our distinction as a people, to its 
real origin or source, through all the connected agencies, 
circumstances, and influences. And as we judge of our 
own land, in its early history and its present and pros- 
pective condition, so are we likely to judge of the state 
and prospects of those kingdoms or republics, which are 
now as "raging waves of the sea ; " and so are we likely 
to determine what may be our duty, as a nation, or as 
individuals, at this eventful conjuncture of the world's 
affairs. 



In general terms, we refer to onr ancestors and to the 
institutions which the Pilgrims and the Fathers of New 
England have founded and cherished, when we would 
explain the peculiar characteristics of their descendants, 
and rationally account for the manifold and unequalled 
excellency of "our goodly heritage." Some will make 
this reference, but with very large reservations, if not 
very significant and somewhat inconsistent qualifications. 
There are those who will " garnish the sepulchres " of 
the " Pilgrims " of Plymouth Rock, and the " Fathers " * 
their associates of Salem, Charlestown, Boston, and other 
primitive settlements ; while they are slow to recognize 
the true secret of the moral worth, and energy, and 
endurance, by which those godly sires achieved their 
noble deeds and won their renowned conquests . and 
possessions. There are theorists and dreamers, who 
would have all forsake " the old paths," and enter upon 
one or another individual or social experiment, in full 
confidence of a progress and happiness, which no received 
form of Christianity can ever secure or promote. On the 
other hand, we have those, and I bless God that the 
number is not small, who are more and more persuaded, 
that it was the distinctive faith, and the life inspired by 
that faith, of our ancestors, to which, under the watchful 
and beneficent care of their covenant God, we are now 
indebted for all that makes the difference between New 
England and New Grenada, or between Massachusetts 
and Mexico. It is believed also, with all the confidence 
of a self-evident certainty, that to the same causes we 
are to ascribe the marvellous contrast of the American 
Revolution to the first revolution in France, and to all 
the other revolutions which have followed, on either side 
of the Atlantic. 

If we differ in regard to the leading and legitimate 

* Those who came to Plymouth, are properly called " The Pilgrims " ; — 
because they had previously sojourned in Holland. 



• 7 

causes, which, working out their effects in past genera- 
tions, have crowned the present with its chief blessing 
and glory, we shall of course differ in our judgment of 
the best means and aims, for the highest good of the 
generations which shall come after us. In our amazing 
increase of territory and population, we have some start- 
ling questions to be settled, in respect to which we must 
act in our political capacity, as citizens. But it is to me 
a great comfort to know, that there is a Power and 
Wisdom above all mortal power and policy ; and that 
whatever rulers or statesmen may decree, or may strive to 
accomplish, He who says to the ocean billows — " Thus 
far but no farther," — will, in his faithfulness and loving 
kindness, and in his own sovereign right and appointed 
time, extend the dominion of truth and holiness ; and 
will multiply, by thousands of thousands, the freemen, 
who can shout the triumphs and rejoice in the felicities 
of " the glorious liberty of the children of God." 

Of all that have ever lived, there have never been any, 
upon the broad face of the earth, who more devoutly, 
than the "old men," our fathers' fathers, adopted the true 
sentiment of the words, that " children's children are the 
crown of old men." They are such, be it remembered, 
not by their numbers, or wealth, or worldly eminence, 
but by serving their generation according to the will of 
God; or by cherishing and spreading the institutions 
and influences of that kingdom, which is established in 
the hearts of the " faithful in Christ Jesus." And the day 
is far distant, before any who reverence the memory of 
illustrious progenitors, will have more reason than our- 
selves, to respond their loud Amen to the words — " And 
the glory of children are their fathers ! " 

Prom the character of the Fathers of New England, 
and from the history of their children and " children's 
children," I propose to show, that, in accordance with the 
genuine import of the sacred aphorism of the text, — we 



8 ' 

have the most grateful occasion to praise God, both for 
the " Glory " and the " Crown." 

For a long period, America was to Christians of Europe 
the great field of missionary effort. It is even maintained, 
that the inspiring idea of Columbus was derived from the 
prophecies ; and that Isabella, his patron, made the con- 
version of the heathen an object " paramount to all the 
rest." When our fathers came hither, these were all 
" foreign parts ." It was all heathen ground. Long after 
their coming, the churches in England were accustomed 
to pray in their songs : — 

" Dark America convert, 
And every pagan land." 

And if I do not mistake, these lines are still sung, strange- 
ly as they sound to the ear of a New England man who 
may chance to hear them. So vast is the change ; so 
accustomed are we to our Christian institutions ; that we 
are all in danger of forgetting that we live upon the soil 
that has been rescued from Paganism. Never, never 
should it be forgotten ! And never should it be forgotten, 
that the settlement of New England was in reality, though 
not in name, a Missionary Enterprise. Or if you please to 
call it by other terms, you may call it a Mission of Evan- 
gelical Colonization ; and you may proclaim it in every 
language, as the sublimest mission of modern times. 

The History of New England is yet to be written. 
Posterity may, perhaps, do justice to the memory of our 
Fathers. But it is incumbent on their living " children's 
children " to acquaint themselves with their character, 
and never be unmindful of their extraordinary virtues and 
achievements. Those persecuted and exiled Puritans had 
no such purpose in coming hither, as has often been as- 
cribed to them, even by some of their favored descend- 
ants. It was not for political immunities, nor republican 



institutions. In the " love of Christ constraining " them, 
it was for the advancement of that Reformation, which, a 
century after it had moved all Christendom, was still but 
in part accomplished ; for they were not satisfied, that the 
" Prince of life " should only be acknowledged by the 
church, in his prophetical and priestly offices. It was, that 
as "the Lord's freemen," they might give him his kingly 
right, and thus be " complete in him, which is the Head 
of all principality and power." It was, that in the "liber- 
ty," " wherewith the Son makes free," they might enjoy 
the gospel, without " human mixtures and temptations ; " 
and worship in peace, " while worshipping in spirit and in 
truth." It was for the holier and surer training of a conse- 
crated progeny, at the distance of a " nine hundred league 
ocean," from the corruptions of the old world. And not 
least of all in their desires and hopes, was the salvation of 
the benighted heathen, while in every way which should 
be prepared before them, they would toil and pray for the 
enlargement of the kingdom of " the Lord of all."* 

These were their motives and ends in separating them- 
selves from the church of England, which originally 
adopted the Reformation from paramount purposes of state 
policy. Above all things, it was in their hearts to call no 
man master, but to obey Him as their King, whose in- 
spired word was their sun, and whose atoning blood was 
their eternal life. For this it was, that in the pure and 
undying " love of their espousals," they " went after him 
in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." And in 
their own graphic expression, it was indeed in a " wilder- 
ness world," that they built their habitations and their 
sanctuaries. For an object, holy and sublime as ever 
angels celebrated, they lived here in hunger and in cold, 
and toiled and watched in weariness and in painfulness ; 
where, when the bullock lowed, the wild beast answered 
him ; and where, at the rustling of a leaf, the fond mother 

* See Appendix. 



10 

clasped her infant closer to her bosom. All the charters 
enjoined upon the colonists the duty of instructing and 
christianizing the pagan aborigines. The seal of the 
Massachusetts colony is a true exponent of the aims and 
aspirations of our fathers. In expressive harmony with 
their benignant desires, they adopted the figure of an abo- 
riginal, with the memorable words of " the man of Mace- 
donia." Nothing, therefore, was further from their hearts 
than the wish or the thought of colonizing an immense 
*' howling wilderness," and redeeming it for " a goodly 
heritage," at the price of the blood of the children of its 
forests and its streams. And if the venerated Robinson 
had occasion to write to the Governor of Plymouth, — ' O 
that you had converted some, before you had killed any,' 
— it was not because these were wantonly destroyed, or 
hunted down as " tawny and bloody salvages ; " nor be- 
cause their moral ignorance and wretchedness were not a 
distinct object of early and intense solicitude. In less 
than two years, I think it was, one of the Plymouth set- 
tlers was specially designated to promote the conversion 
of the Indians. 

In the labors of several pastors before Eliot and the 
first Mayhew, as well as in the more celebrated exertions 
of these devoted evangelists, and in the contributions 
and personal sacrifices of those who out of their " deep 
poverty" sustained them, the first generation of New 
England furnished examples of as self-denying and ex- 
alted missionary spirit, as has ever yet found a record or a 
memorial in the uninspired annals of redemption. And 
to all appearance, we may ourselves hardly expect to see 
the day, when " the thousand of thousands " shall become 
as "the little one " was, and the " strong nation " as " the 
small one," in the all-pervading and ennobling power of 
such zeal, for the salvation of the perishing. 

The honor of the first plan in England, for sending 
missionaries to the heathen, has by mistake been given to 



11 

that wonderful man, whose character is now at last re- 
ceiving a just and brilliant vindication, against the atro- 
cious calumnies, which have prevailed for two centuries. 
But the magnificent design of Cromwell, which contem- 
plated the establishment of a Council for the Protestant 
religion, in opposition to the Jesuitical combination at 
Rome, and which was intended to embrace the East and 
West Indies, in its fourth department of operation, — was 
more than thirty years later, than the manifesto of the 
Pilgrims, — declaratory of the "great hope and inward 
zeal they had, of laying some good foundation for the 
propagation and advancement of the gospel in these re- 
mote parts of the world " ! 

A Society had been formed in England, and collections 
had been taken, in aid of the missions of Eliot and his 
associates. It is beyond a doubt, that the first settlers of 
New England were the first Englishmen^ who devised 
and executed a mission to the heathen ! 

As early as 1646, the Legislature of Massachusetts 
passed an act for the propagation of the gospel among the 
Indians. From that day onward, more or less of legisla- 
tive provision has been made for their religious instruc- 
tion, as well as their social comfort. And it may be 
remarked in a word, that with all the changes that have 
passed over the "fathers" and the "children's children," 
there never has been a time, when they have not fur- 
nished some laborers in the heathen part of this western 
world.* 

As it respects the religious faith of the Fathers of New 
England, there can be no good reason for any misunder- 
standing, mistake, or misstatement. They were Trini- 
tarians and Calvinists, intelligently, thoroughly, and most 
earnestly. In church government, they were much per- 
plexed, in shaping their mould of Congregationalism, so 

* See Appendix. 



12 

as to be neither Brownists or Independents, nor Presby- 
terians. A great and arduous work it was which fash- 
ioned and executed the Cambridge Platform of 1648 ; — 
according to which, mainly and substantially, we have 
the prevailing ecclesiastical polity of New England. 

Some turbulent and innovating spirits, like Roger Wil- 
liams, bewildered enthusiasts like the antinomian Ann 
Hutchinson, and incomprehensible schismatics like the 
pestilent Gorton, made no small trouble by their opposi- 
tion to the earliest civil and religious order of the Massa- 
chusetts Colony.* But out of more than seventy minis- 
ters among a population of thirty thousand, there is no 
reason to suppose, that there was a single one, who did 
not receive the doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, as one God ; or who did not receive as well as 
avow, most openly and decidedly, the fundamental doc- 
trines of the present faith of our evangelical Congrega- 
tional churches. 

It was to a few individuals among the laity, beyond a 
doubt, that Edward Johnson refers, who, as early as 1654, 
had published the fact, which I here notice, without any 
invidious intent, that, besides the Antinomians, Fami- 
lists, Conformitants, and Seekers, " there were Arrians, 
Arminians, and Quakers." 

A most egregious and singular error has been committed 
in representing the founders of the First Church in Salem, 
— the first, as I need not say, in the Massachusetts Colo- 
ny, — as having organized themselves, without any Con- 
fession of Faith ; and as having had a form of Covenant, 
designedly so framed, as to give liberty to all, who might 
choose to call themselves Christians, to enter their com- 
munion and fellowship. What has been generally print- 
ed, for a hundred and fifty years, as the First Covenant of 
that Church, and adopted Aug. 6, 1629, is not that Cove- 



* See Appendix. 



13 

nant. It was adopted as a Special Covenant, in 1636. — 
The Covenant of 1629 was a very brief and comprehen- 
sive document, by which the signers pledged themselves 
to walk together in obedience to the rules of the Gospel ; 
while the " Confession of Faith" was as explicit and de- 
cided, — Trinitarian and CaMnistic, — as would of course 
be expected from men, who would rather have been burnt 
at the stake, than have given the least occasion for a 
doubt, concerning their interpretation of " the faith once 
delivered to the saints." 

The error in respect to the Covenant, commonly printed 
as the First Covenant in the Massachusetts Colony, — was 
discovered a few years ago, during an investigation of the 
history of the Tabernacle Church, a Church which origi- 
nated in a secession from the First Church, in 1735. 
Soon afterwards, a printed copy was found of the Con- 
fession and Covenant, for substance, as adopted in Salem, 
6th of August, 1629. It is the identical document, 
which was printed for the use of the churches, when 
they so generally renewed their covenant in 1680 ; and 
when the design was, as far as possible, to unite all to- 
gether in one common concert of recognition of the doc- 
trinal and practical sentiments of the venerable Church, of 
which Higginson and Skelton were jointly pastor and 
teacher, and of which Endicott, the first Governor of 
Massachusetts Colony, was a leading member. 

Hugh Peters was the pastor of the First Church, in 
Salem, at the time the Covenant was propounded and 
adopted, which has so unaccountably passed into so many 
" Historical Collections " and discourses, as if that of 
1629. The evidence that it was a new covenant, which 
was required by the disorders occasioned more especially 
by the movements of Roger Williams, is perfectly con- 
clusive. And as the very preamble, as well as other in- 
ternal evidence, is so palpably against the idea of its 
being the first Covenant, — it would seem to be most ex- 



14 

traordinary, that so important an error of history should 
have been committed and blindly perpetuated.* 

With the doctrines of Arius and Pelagius, of Arminius 
and Socinus, and with all the prominent objections to the 
Trinitarian and Calvinistic faith, the first pastors and 
members of the New England churches were no less, if 
not more perfectly acquainted, than at the present day 
are pastors and members of the churches generally, which 
are built upon the same foundation. — Those early minis- 
ters had been educated in the English universities, and 
had been called to investigate every article of their reli- 
gious belief, — with every advantage which was needed for 
a correct judgment. 

When in 1648, the ministers of the four Colonies of 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Haven, 
(as the Colonies were then geographically divided and 
named,) assembled in the Synod at Cambridge, "their 
learning, their holiness, their purity struck all men that 
knew them, with admiration. They were Timothies in 
their houses, Chrysostoms in their pulpits, and Augus- 
tines in their disputations." Such was the witness of 
the venerable John Higginson, of the First Church in 
Salem, and of William Hubbard of Ipswich, who, at the 
time they wrote, near the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, were the two oldest ministers of New England. 

The idea, which some have attempted to disseminate, 
— that our fathers lived in a dark age, and would not have 
been what they were in their denominational sentiments, 
if they had lived at a later period, for example, in our 
times, has not the least foundation in history or in reason. 
It might just as well be asserted and argued, that they 
would have been atheistical transcendentalists or Four- 
ierites, as that, in any essential point, they would have 
been otherwise than what they were, namely, — avowed 

* See Appendix. 



15 

and firm believers in the Confession of Faith of the 
Westminster Assembly of Divines ! — And it has been 
stated as a fact, which speaks whole volumes in few 
words, — that, for one hundred and fifty years, such a 
wretched creature, such a living monstrosity, as an infidel, 
was not known among their children ! 

How could they have been otherwise than they were, 
with their holy reverence for the Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testament throughout, as the inspired Word of 
God ; as the infallible repository of their faith and the 
rules of their life in Christ ; and as the ultimate appeal in 
all questions of theology and of morals ? The Bible 
they exalted above all things human. They were "not 
ashamed of the Gospel," any more than was Paul. They 
" gloried in the cross." They " sanctified the Lord God 
in their hearts ; " and were " ready always to give an 
answer to every man that asked a reason of the hope that 
was in " them, " with meekness and fear," — -fear of God, 
not that " fear of man " which " bringeth a snare." They 
were honest, as every one must admit, who knows any- 
thing of them, — and were most hearty in all which they 
professed to believe, in answer to the question, — " What 
saith the Scripture ? " 

With special allusion to the early ministers, it was 
written a century and a half since ; — " Indeed the minis- 
ters of New England have this to recommend them unto 
a good regard with the crown of England, that the most 
flourishing plantation in all the American dominions of 
that crown, is more owing to them than to any sort of 
men whatever." They well deserved that euiogium. It 
is almost impossible to estimate their influence upon the 
world, in an epoch which Merle D'Aubigne has character- 
ized as " one of the most important in modern times, so 
far as concerns the new developments of nations." 

At no time, since the settlement of the country, have 
the people at large had so much, probably, of direct pas- 



16 

toral supervision, as in the first years of the colonies. A 
number of the churches, though quite small, had in effect 
two pastors, one of whom, called Teacher, had it in charge 
to discourse of systematic theology, rather than deliver 
words of "exhortation," upon matters of daily Christian 
practice. And of more than one, doubtless, it might have 
been said, as it was of a pastor in the neighborhood of 
Salem, — that "he was a tree of knowledge laden with 
fruit, which the children could reach" 

By the laws of the Massachusetts Colony, all dwellings 
must be located within half a mile, or at farthest within 
a mile, of the place of worship. This was doubtless for 
mutual defence against the Indians, when almost every 
man carried his fire-arms to the sanctuary, as well as into 
the field of his labor ; also for the greater convenience of 
assembling on the Lord's day, and for the weekly lecture 
of Thursday, which was of hardly less account than the 
services of the Sabbath. There was thus a more frequent 
and intimate communion with one another as of the same 
" household of God," and fellow-citizens of " the com- 
monwealth of Israel." This was a very different mode 
of living from that of the Southern colonists, upon scat- 
tered plantations. 

At the first, the greater part of adults, both male and 
female, were church-members, by profession of hope in 
Christ, as pardoned and renewed. There were delightful 
seasons of special awakening in those days ; and in some 
of the churches, as in that of Cambridge, under the min- 
istry of Thomas Shepard, it was expected as a matter of 
course, that some new cases of conviction, if not of con- 
version, would be manifest every Sabbath. 

So indispensable was family prayer to the order of 
every dwelling, that you might have visited a hundred or 
several hundred contiguous families in succession, without 
finding one, in which the morning and evening sacrifice 
were not offered. For a long period, exceptions were 



17 

extremely few. And would, that in our day, those who 
offer prayer in the family, in the closet, and in other 
places, were, in as great a proportion, as strong as were 
the fathers in the faith of the Abrahamic covenant, and 
all the promises to God's people ! 

" Prayer and preaching were the living principle of their 
institutions ; special prayer upon special emergencies, with 
the confident expectation of direct and specific answers ; 
preaching, the most plain and pungent, enforcing those 
peculiar doctrines of grace which humble man and exalt 
God, and which have in every age been made powerful 
to < the pulling down of strong holds.' There was much 
also in the state of their infant settlements to favor the 
desired results. They were a world within themselves, 
cut off by their distance and poverty from most of the 
alluring objects which seize on the hearts of the uncon- 
verted in a more advanced state of society. They were 
all of one faith [in every vital point] ; there was none 
among them to question or deny the necessity of a work 
of the Spirit ; and the minds of their children were pre- 
pared, by their early religious training, to bow submissive 
under the sacred influence. In these circumstances, how 
natural was it to multiply the means of grace, upon any 
appearance of increased seriousness ; to press with re- 
doubled zeal and frequency to the throne of God in prayer ; 
to urge their children and dependents, with all the fervor 
of Christian affection, to seize the golden opportunity, 
and ' make their calling and election sure ' ; to remove, 
as far as possible, every obstacle of business or amusement 
out of the way ; and to concentrate the entire interest of 
their little communities on the one object of the soul's 
salvation ! How natural that these labors and prayers 
should be blessed of God ; that the truth preached under 
these circumstances should be made, like ' the fire and 
the hammer, to break in pieces the flinty rock' ; that ex- 
traordinary effusions of the IJoly Spirit should be granted, 
3 



18 

and that there should be an ' awakening,' as it was then 
called, or, in modern language, a Revival of Religion."* 

There were some sad departures from a strict and close 
walk with God ; and flagrant instances of breach of 
church covenant. New England was better far than the 
Goshen of Egypt, but it was no part of the garden of 
Eden, from which "God drove out the man," from whom 
our fathers had their descent. f Of the general state of 
morals, however, in a comprehensive view, we shall prob- 
ably not be much misled, if we draw our inferences from 
the witness of an intelligent contemporary, who, with the 
prejudices of the Church Establishment in the mother 
country, resided a few years in New England, previous to 
1641. According to him, one might spend a year in 
going from place to place, and not " see a drunkard, or 
hear an oath, or see a beggar " ! J 

As the statutes of the Mosaic code were taken as the 
general laws of the colonists, the Sabbath was begun at 
sunset on Saturday evening. It was observed also with 
great strictness, in all domestic arrangements and duties. 
And it was, as many may not be fully aware, the strict- 
ness of the observance of the Sabbath, as compared with 
the practice on the Continent and in Great Britain, from 
which, more than from any other difference, the Puritans 
first obtained their specific name. 

" It was happy for our progenitors," said the late amia- 
ble and accomplished Dr. Kirkland, in his discourse de- 
livered at Plymouth, forty-five years since, — "that they 
brought with them into the wilderness the confidential 
associates of their domestic labors and domestic cares. 
Throughout their arduous enterprise, they experienced 
the inexpressible value of that conjugal friendship, which 
no change of fortune can weaken or interrupt ; in which 

* C. A. Goodrich, D. D., in Baird's " Religion in America," p. 197. 
t See Appendix. % Thomas Lechford. 



19 

'tenderness is heightened by distress, and attachment 
cemented by the tears of sorrow.' The family society 
began with the civil and ecclesiastical society. Family 
religion and order began with the family society. To 
Him who had directed them in a right way for them- 
selves, for their little ones, and for all their substance, 
1 the saint, the father and the husband ' was accustomed 
to offer in the presence of his household his daily and 
nightly sacrifices of praise. Regular and beautiful was 
the church, in which he who ministered, had only to 
place in order in the building, those materials, which pa- 
rents had previously framed and adjusted to his house." 

I need only allude to the early establishment of free 
schools, that every child might be taught the elements of 
what is understood by " popular education " ; — and for 
the express purpose, that all might be able to read for 
themselves the Word of God, and be fortified against the 
machinations, both of Papacy and Prelacy, in particular, 
and of all the pretences and allurements of " false apos- 
tles " in general. And within ten years after the begin- 
ning of the permanent settlements in Massachusetts, the 
College at Cambridge was established, that "the children 
of the old men " might not fail of a supply of pastors, 
who would "feed the flock of God," "with knowledge 
and understanding." * 

It was eminently of divine favor, that so many learned, 
evangelical, and eloquent ministers arrived in New Eng- 
land before 1640. Some few of them went back at the 
time of the civil wars, and after the establishment of the 
Commonwealth, under Cromwell. Such was the change 
of times, it has been quaintly recorded, — "that instead of 
Old England's driving its best people into New, it was 
itself turned into New." During the troubles at home, 
opportunity was given for the progress of the experi- 

* See Appendix. 



20 

mental institutions of the colonists, to a maturity of 
consolidation, which could bid defiance, though not 
without some misgiving of alarm, to the insidious and 
deadly machinations of the profligate court and the 
godless hierarchy of Charles II. And from that day to the 
present, it is undeniable, that the mother country has 
experienced an incessant and most powerful reaction upon 
herself, of the principles and the example of the exiled 
founders of the mighty fabric, which is now the wonder 
of all nations. 

But of the first ministers, who, under the pressure of 
intolerance, or in despair of the progress of the Reforma- 
tion in their native island, came to these " foreign parts," 
and to a pagan and savage wilderness of an extent 
unknown and unimagined, by far the greater part re- 
mained, died among their own people, and were gathered 
by devout men to their burial, amidst lamentations and 
gratulations. They displayed a faith in God, as a 
Rewarder, an energy in view of obstacles, a constancy 
under discouragements, and a fortitude in suffering, which 
are beyond all human praise or reward. 

And, my brethren, if we would inherit the same 
promises, which sustained them so triumphantly to the 
last, we shall be slow to forget, that, from the ordinance 
of Heaven, a New England was originated by self-denial 
for Christ's supremacy ; implicit reliance upon the witness 
of the Holy Scriptures, to the utter exclusion of all 
" philosophy and vain deceit j " a well-educated and truly 
pious ministry, who " shunned not to declare the whole 
counsel of God ; " sound Calvinistic doctrine, fearlessly 
addressed to the understanding and the conscience ; 
prayer without ceasing, like that at Bethel, at Carmel, 
and in " the upper room " at Jerusalem ; family religion, 
with a confiding, grateful self-application of the Abra- 
hamic covenant ; fraternal or congregational independence 
of the churches ; universal instruction, literary and Chris- 



21 

tian ; and the remembrance of the Lord's day, according 
to the Fourth Commandment, in its original import, and 
as written by the " ringer of God," for an everlasting 
statute and memorial. 

It is, as I regard it, a most instructive fact of our early 
history, that the period during which the "old ministers" 
flourished in New England, was most remarkable for 
prayer of Puritan fathers and mothers, on both sides of 
the Atlantic, that all those who were " bone of their bone 
and flesh of their flesh " might be " sons and daughters 
of the Lord Almighty." They deprecated as the direst 
of curses " a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupt- 
ers." " No greater joy " could they have, than " to see 
their children walking in the truth." And many were 
the supplications of the pastors, like that of the venerable 
Higginson and Hubbard, at the close of the century in 
which New England began, — " that God would raise up 
from time to time, those who may be the happy instru- 
ments of bringing down the hearts of the parents into the 
children ! " 

Born of such parents, baptized in real faith, and nur- 
tured for Christ and the church, not for worldly aggran- 
dizement or splendor, a very large number, as would be 
inferred from the sketches already drawn, became sincere 
followers of the Son of God, and shone brightly as 
" lights in the world." " Plain mechanics have I known," 
says a writer in 1681, " well catechised and humble 
Christians, excellent in practical piety ; they kept their 
station ; did not aspire to be preachers ; but for gifts of 
prayer, few clergymen must come near them."* 

Among the children and grand-children of "the fathers," 
it was not at all difficult to find those, who were as stead- 
fast and efficient, as were Caleb and Joshua, in their 
co-operation with Moses and Aaron. Situated as they 



Mather's Magn. Vol. I. 221. 



22 

were, in temporal privations and perils ; — obliged to 
submit to every hardship and encounter innumerable 
obstacles to pecuniary advancement ; an immense work 
to be done in the accomplishment of their purposes and 
measurable realization of their hopes and their faith, — 
their circumstances were highly suited to awaken the 
general mass to no ordinary degrees of physical, religious, 
and intellectual activity. The indomitable energy of the 
men of that early period, is vibrating yet in every pulsa- 
tion of some millions of their resolute and still advancing 
posterity. 

The Fathers held in common with other Puritans, 
11 that all men are by nature destitute of true piety ; 
that they naturally grow up in the practice of sin ; and 
that no one becomes religious, except by a change in his 
habits of thought, feeling and conduct, which they 
ascribed to the special operation of the Holy Spirit as its 
supernatural cause. They believed that the truly pious 
are ordinarily conscious of this change in the action of 
their own minds when it takes place, and are able to 
describe it, though they may not then know that the 
change of which they are conscious is regeneration. In 
some cases, they admitted, the man is not aware of any 
change at the time of his conversion ; yet he will be 
conscious of exercises afterward, such as no unregenerate 
man ever has. Some may be regenerated in infancy, 
which it is lawful for us to hope is the case with all who 
die before they are old enough to profit by the external 
means of grace. If any of them live to maturity, they 
will not be able to remember the time of their change, 
but they will be conscious of sensible love to God and 
holiness, penitence for sin and other pious exercises, and 
can give an account of them. They believed, therefore, 
that every converted person, who has arrived at the age 
of discretion, has a religious 'experience' which he can 
tell, and by hearing which, other pious persons may judge 



23 

of his piety. The evidence thus afforded, however, was 
to be compared with his conduct in all the relations of 
life, and if this also was l such as becometh saints,' he 
was to be accounted a pious man." 

Further; "a church they held to be ' a company of 
faithful persons, [so says the Platform of 1648,] i. e., 
persons who have saving faith, regenerate persons, agree- 
ing and consenting to meet constantly together in one 
congregation for the public worship of God and their 
mutual edification ; which real agreement and consent 
they do express by their constant practice in coming 
together for the worship of God, and by their religious 
subjection,' that is, by their subjecting themselves volun- 
tarily from religious motives, ■ to the ordinances of God 
therein.' ".* 

Moreover, it was most obvious, that the Congregational 
church government could never be administered properly, 
if all persons who pleased, could obtain admission to the 
churches. Men of no piety might soon outnumber all 
others, and the church* would become but a name of dis- 
tinction from the world. 

Hence the mode of admission to the New England 
churches was entirely different from that which then 
obtained in almost every part of the Christian world. It 
was expected of all who joined them, to. make a volun- 
tary application, and furnish evidence of " fitness for 
membership." 

Thus, in process of time, or about 1650 or 1655, arose 
a difficulty of a very serious nature. " Throughout 
Christendom in that age, neither Jews, Turks, pagans, 
infidels, nor excommunicated persons could enjoy the full 
privileges of citizenship. These privileges belonged only 
to persons who were in communion with the churches 



* Religion in America, Book "VTL Chap. III. This chapter was furnished 
for the work, by Rev. Joseph Tracy. 



24 

established by law. The same rule was adopted in New 
England. None but members of churches could hold 
offices or vote at elections. Here, however, it operated 
as it did nowhere else. As the churches contained only 
those who were, in the judgment of charity, regenerate 
persons, a large portion of the people, among whom were 
many persons of intelligence, of good moral character, 
and orthodox in their creed, were excluded from valuable 
civil privileges." 

It is probable, that the greatest dissatisfaction was ex- 
pressed by those, who had newly arrived in the country, 
and who were quite different from the original colonists. 
But there were some of the children of the fathers, who 
gave no evidence of conversion, and were therefore not 
entitled to vote, or to hold civil offices. To meet the 
difficulty and the growing uneasiness, a part of the 
clergy, in a Synod at Cambridge, 1662, devised what has 
ever since been known, as the "half-way covenant ; " — 
which, however effectual in quieting the discontent of 
such as felt aggrieved, was a very serious mistake, and 
productive of great evil. 

Persons who had been baptized in infancy, were to be 
recognized as members of the church to which their 
parents belonged ; excepting that they were not to be 
allowed to partake of the Lord's Supper, until they 
should furnish the accredited evidence of personal regen- 
eration. They were to profess their assent to the confes- 
sion of faith, at some suitable time, after arriving at 
maturity of understanding. And if they were not 
scandalous in life, having owned the covenant of the 
church, they were entitled to bring their children to the 
ordinance of baptism. 

This new system was strenuously resisted by a part of 
the ministers and of the laity. It never became univer- 
sal ; for the power of the synod, which recommended it, 
was only advisory. But a great change was effected ; 



25 

and, in general, the collision between citizenship and 
church-membership was really at an end. 

Not a few in New England were now ready to write 
"Ichabod" upon all the pillars of the churches. It has 
been thought, that such a change would have been 
impossible, during the lives of the most able and influen- 
tial of the first generation of ministers. These were 
now nearly all gone, and the residue were just going. 

It had become a common remark, it has been said, that 
the old and tried ministers, and other venerable men, were 
fast ceasing from the land ; and a frequent lamentation 
anticipated a most disastrous withering of the hopes, 
which had been watered with their tears, at the feet of 
their sympathizing Redeemer and Lord. But the " vine 
out of Egypt " which had been " planted " among " the 
heathen," was not thus soon to be forsaken by Him, that 
" dwelleth between the cherubim." Already it had been 
" caused to take deep root." " The hills were covered 
with the shadow of it," and "the boughs thereof were like 
the goodly cedars." The " hedges " were not " broken 
down," that " the boar out of the wood " should " waste 
it," and " the wild beast of the field devour it." 

The predominant influence in all matters, both of State 
and Church, was decidedly that of the former generation. 
Troubles multiplied with the Indians, and much more 
blood was poured out, in wars offensive and defensive. 
Yet some thousands in the different tribes were brought 
under the power of the Gospel, and considerable villages 
were formed from among them, in which churches were 
built and schools supported. These were at times sub- 
jected to terrible slaughter and devastation, by the Pagan 
Indians ; and suffered not a little also, in some instances, 
at the hands of the whites, who charged the Christian 
Indians, as being spies or accomplices of those who had 
taken up the tomahawk, for the extermination of the 
English. 

4 



26 

A league for this end was formed, under the direction 
of the famous king Philip ; and in the struggles which 
preceded and accompanied it, before his death, " every 
eleventh family was houseless, and every eleventh soldier 
had sunk to his grave." 

It was just at this period, that the French were moving 
in Canada, to extend the power of France over all the 
immense region of the northwest ; and to secure the 
dominion from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, through the 
great lakes and rivers to the Gulf of Mexico. But of 
their adventurous explorations, from Montreal to Michigan, 
and from Michigan to the Mississippi, the New England 
fathers, it is believed, knew little or nothing.* 

So great was the impoverishment of the people, and 
their distress from Philip's war and divers calamities, that 
their condition awakened the compassionate sympathy 
of their relatives and others across the water. It is 
peculiarly interesting to us at this time to know, that a 
large donation was sent hither from Ireland, in January, 
1677. Nathaniel Mather, pastor of a church in Dublin, 
and brother of Increase Mather, then pastor of the North 
Church in Boston, is supposed to have been the principal 
agent in procuring this donation. The amount distrib- 
uted in Massachusetts was not less than £363 ; beside 
what was sent to the other Colonies; — which, with the 
necessary expenses, would make the whole collection, 
nearly if not quite one thousand pounds. Truly a gene- 
rous donation in those days, and in proportion to numbers 
and means, fully equal to what has been considered a 
magnificent charity, — the relief sent to Ireland in the 
recent terrible famine ! 

Before 1680, there is no doubt, that there was a marked 
deterioration in the manners and morals of the population, 



* They had probably learned, however, some years before this time, that 
New England is not an " island." See Appendix. 



27 

as compared with the communities of 1640. This may- 
have been owing in a degree to the reaction of the strict 
enforcements of the previous generation ; but far more, 
probably, to the irreligious example of immigrants from 
Europe, and more than all to the fashionable gaiety and 
licentiousness, which had such fearful ascendency in 
England, after the restoration of Charles II. ; and wiiich 
the " lovers of pleasure more than the lovers of God " in 
the Colonies, particularly in the larger towns, were not 
reluctant to imitate. Thus we find the clergy and pious 
laymen deploring the neglect of baptismal obligations ; 
profanation of God's name ; desecration of the Sabbath ; 
want of piety in heads of families ; intemperance and 
lewdness, — temptations to which they could not but see 
with disgust and abhorrence, in certain indelicate aud 
wanton modes of female dress, which, I may observe, 
would not be tolerated a day, in the present generation. 
The godly men also mourned over the dishonesty in 
traffic and unfaithfulness to promises, and the ambitious 
worldliness of some individuals, who had removed to a 
distance from churches, for the sake of more valuable 
farms or merchandize ; forgetting, it was said, that ''when 
Lot left Canaan and the church for better accommodations 
in Sodom, God fired him out of all" 

In May, 1679, a Synod of the churches in the Massa- 
chusetts Colony was convened by order of Court, to 
consider and answer these questions : — 1st. What are the 
reasons that have provoked the Lord to bring his judg- 
ments upon New England ? 2d. What is to be done that 
so these evils may be removed ? 

The consideration of the first question drew forth such 
intimations of alarming degeneracy, as those just de- 
scribed ; while the second question was met, as might 
have been expected, without any apparent fear of man, 
whether high or low. The synod enjoin upon all, " who 
were above others " to "become every way exemplary ; " 



28 

summoned the people to declare " their adherence to the 
faith and discipline of their fathers ; " insisted upon the 
importance of guarding against receiving unworthy per- 
sons to church communion ; urged the necessity of " a 
full supply of church officers, pastors, teachers and ruling 
elders," and a competent support of the same ; recom- 
mended an explicit renewal of covenant in the churches, 
which implied a season of fasting and humiliation ; and 
suggested other reformatory measures, in the use of 
which the people might have reason to expect a removal 
of their calamities. 

Very good effects followed the meeting of that synod. 
The churches generally renewed their covenant. And as 
it would seem, in order that as far as possible the mem- 
bers might be brought to the same faith and practice, as 
" the fathers " professed and sanctioned, the original 
Confession and Covenant of the First Church in Salem, 
as formed August 6, 1629, were published for general 
circulation and adoption. 

Much abatement must be made from the earnest lan- 
guage, which was employed by some of the good men of 
that period, in portraying the character of the times. 
Many circumstances conspired to spread a gloom over every 
aspect of affairs, both civil and religious. The pious old 
ministers especially, who remembered the best things of 
the earlier days, and forgot the worst, would not unnatu- 
rally make assertions or accusations, which (like some 
confessions in prayer) the historian and the reader must 
not interpret too literally. 

The truth was, probably, that with an indisputable fall- 
ing away in some marked respects, there was yet a large 
majority of families, in which the memory and example 
of " the fathers" were cherished with a sincere and sacred 
veneration. And great as was the quantity of tares which 
the arch-enemy of all righteousness had sowed among the 
wheat, by himself or his servants, the wheat was still able 



29 

to grow for a harvest of " thirty and sixty," if not " an 
hundred fold." 

Whenever, in our own day, " they that fear the Lord, 
speak often one to another" in the retired private meet- 
ings of prayer and conference, — it is an infallible proof, 
that the Holy Spirit has not been taken away from the 
surrounding community, and an auspicious token of a 
blessing to come. From the beginning of the colonial 
settlements, it had been common to sustain such meetings. 
At some seasons, these were multiplied or more frequently 
attended. Not far from 1680, or in the very time when 
the "degeneracy" from the practices of "the fathers" 
was so much lamented, — we find the statement of a 
writer, that " the country still is full of those little meet- 
ings." There are those, to whom this single item of 
history, is like opening a window upon a verdant land- 
scape, where the rains have fallen, and the sun is shining, 
and the joy of harvest will erelong awaken the song of 
the reaper. Upon the whole, it may unhesitatingly be 
affirmed, that, in no part of the Christian world, was there 
so great encouragement for godly parents to hope for 
spiritual blessings upon their " children's children." 

In the " Magnalia," we have an "ecclesiastical map of 
the country " for 1696. It affords conclusive witness of 
great religious advancement. And with .good reason did 
an aged saint of that period remark upon his death-bed, — 
" Well, I am going to heaven, and I will there tell the 
faithful, who are long since gone from New England 
thither, that though they, who gathered our churches are 
all dead and gone,-— the churches are still alive, with as 
numerous flocks of Christians, as were ever among them." 

At this time also, notwithstanding all the obstacles and 
difficulties, so great had been the success of laborers 
among the Indians of different tribes, or different portions 
of the same tribe, — that, in 1696, there were not less than 



30 

thirty Indian churches in Massachusetts alone ; and in 
1698, there were three thousand reputed converts. 

But it is painful to be obliged to say, — that there are 
those, who know little else of the religious history of New 
England, in the 17th century, — that is, during the eighty 
years after the Plymouth settlement, — excepting that 
Roger Williams was banished to Rhode Island ; that 
some, who were called Baptists and Quakers, — very 
different people from those now so called, — were made 
to suffer severe penalties of law ; and that, in Salem, 
innocent people were put to death, under accusation of 
witchcraft. 

I would not assume the responsibility of justifying all 
that was done by " the fathers," in repelling the encroach- 
ments of conflicting religious opinions, and in suppressing 
the movements of disorganizes and fanatics ; any more 
than I should be ready to vindicate the propriety of such 
executions as those in Salem, in 1692. But I am prepared 
to say, that the man who cannot find so much of an 
apology for the transactions in question, that he can most 
freely forgive the mistakes of the few, who were most 
concerned in them, and most heartily join in a tribute of 
grateful respect and reverence for those, who are properly 
styled " the Fathers of New England," — can hardly be a 
man, who is entitled to a very high consideration, for his 
knowledge of the facts, his discrimination of truth, or his 
candor of judgment. Make the very most that can be 
made, of alleged intolerance, persecution, and bigotry, it 
can still be demonstrated, that our New England progeni- 
tors were entirely and most honorably in advance of all 
the rest of Christendom, in their conception of the rights 
of conscience, and their exemplification of Christian liber- 
ty. If they acted inconsistently with their principles, it 
was from the very necessity of their position. " It was 
not," as has been justly said, " so much a question of 
toleration as of the maintenance or defeat of the very de- 



31 

sign of their emigration ; they were well assured, that, if 
the malcontents could succeed in their designs, they them- 
selves would not much longer be allowed their freedom 
in the worship of God."* It was not for opinions, but 
for corrupt, shameless, disorganizing, and demoralizing 
words and deeds, — that those were caused to suffer, who 
never deserved the least credit or sympathy, as if Chris- 
tian martyrs. He that courts martyrdom, is no martyr. 
Let things be done now in Salem, on the Sabbath, or on 
other days, like those for which some are falsely said to 
have been persecuted ; — and not an hour would pass, 
before the offenders would be in custody. 

And it really would seem a little too much for ordinary 
forbearance, that as honest and pure men as ever breathed, 
should be opposed and reproached in their own generation, 
as going a whole age or more, too fast and too far, and 
then, in generations afterwards, be calumniated and stig- 
matized, for not going, ages upon ages, farther than they 
did ; — calumniated and stigmatized by men too, who, if 
there never had been in the world such characters, as they 
thus outrageously abuse, would themselves have now 
been in benighted barbarism or polluted heathenism ! 
Let who will, point the finger of derision at the pious 
founders of these associated States of the American Re- 
public, — the history of man will be searched in vain for a 
people, that adopted wiser measures, or secured for their 
posterity more exalted privileges and means of knowledge 
and virtue, freedom and happiness ! Toleration of reli- 
gious opinions is one of the last lessons of human ad- 
vancement. And it is much easier to denounce others, 
for illiberality and intolerance, than to be examples of true 
Christian charity. Those who complain the most of their 
fellow-men, for uncharitableness, are not seldom the 
greatest offenders, by being so " fierce for moderation." 

* See Appendix. 



32 

Passing out of the 17th into the 18th century, we soon 
notice another ecclesiastical innovation, which was the 
natural sequence of the half-way covenant of 1JB62. In 
1707, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, a 
highly influential divine, published a sermon, in which he 
maintained, that " unregenerate persons ought to partake 
of the Lord's Supper." He had avowed the belief, three 
years before, that the Lord's Supper should be considered 
a means of regeneration. It has been sometimes said, 
that he himself had had a religious experience, which 
would make such a belief very plausible, if not, in his 
own view, unquestionable. 

One of his arguments, and plainly a very specious one, 
was, that " it is impossible to distinguish the regenerate 
from the unregenerate, so as to admit the former and ex- 
clude the latter." So far as his opinions received counte- 
nance, the practical effect was, to remove entirely that 
barrier to indiscriminate communion, which the old half- 
way covenant had not presumed to touch. And as it has 
been shrewdly remarked, " the church was now obliged 
to convict the applicant of a scandalous life, or of heresy, 
or admit him to full communion; and one reason for it 
was the supposed impossibility of judging whether he was 
regenerated or not ! " 

Mr. Stoddard was personally a decided Calvinist j but 
his system inevitably favored Arminianism, by " teaching 
that the impenitent have something to do before repent- 
ance, as a means of obtaining saving grace." The unre- 
generate communicant would of course consider himself 
as in the w T ay appointed for his salvation. And assuming 
that it was impossible to distinguish the really converted 
from the unconverted, by any definite experience which 
could be described, there would naturally be no very great 
disquietude of conscience. 

• Mr. Stoddard's new doctrine was ably resisted. Still 
the influence was disastrous ; as appeared from the gradual 



33 

adoption of it by churches, which had recognized the 
system of the half-way covenant. It paralyzed effort for 
immediate conversion. No awakenings were known in 
places, which had previously been highly favored ; and 
many partook of the sacramental elements, who " had a 
name to live, but were dead." And that the disaster was 
not more extensive and deplorable, is only to be explained 
by the steadfast adherence of so large a portion of the 
ministers and church members to " the old paths," and 
"the good way" in which " the fathers found rest for 
their souls." There were those in large numbers, who 
protested against the assertion and assumption, that re- 
generate persons cannot be distinguished from the nnre- 
generate, with any such certainty or probability, as would 
make a profession of Christian experience a suitable and 
just requirement for admission to the full privileges of 
church-membership. 

As God, in the wonderful working of his providence 
would have it, an instrument of most formidable opposi- 
tion to the doctrine and system of Stoddard, was raised 
up in his own grand-son, Jonathan Edwards ; who, as the 
greatest theologian and metaphysician of this continent, 
commenced his career in the very place, where his much 
respected grand-parent had proclaimed his unfortunate 
errors. As early as 1735, a course of sermons on justifi- 
cation by faith, with others on kindred topics, such as the 
necessity of the Spirit's influences, were blessed of God 
with a marvellous accompanying of convictions and con- 
versions. A similar awakening or revival was experienced 
in other towns of Massachusetts and Connecticut. " The 
work in Northampton was confined to no class or age." 
" Ten persons above ninety, more than fifty above forty 
years of age; nearly thirty between ten and fourteen, and 
one, of only four, became, in the view of Mr. Edwards, 
subjects of renewing grace. More than three hundred 
were added to the church." 
5 



34 

A tremendous shock was now given to the doctrine, 
that the exercises of regenerate persons were not distin- 
guishable from those of unregenerate. Several hundreds of 
new converts, in different towns,, had such distinctive re- 
ligious exercises, that they had not the least hesitation in 
speaking of them, as matters of fact in their consciousness, 
as much as any facts whatsoever. They could give a ra- 
tional and most affecting account of their conviction of 
sin. their struggle before submission to God. their accept- 
ance of Christ as the Saviour of the lost, and their sub- 
sequent trust or hope, peace or joy. as believers in Jesus. 
Among these were many persons of such acknowledged 
powers of intellect, and of such indisputable eminence, 
that no man could class them among the ignorant and the 
obscure. 

Ministers were now called to very solemn searchings of 
heart, in regard to their own prospects of acceptance at 
the judgment-seat of Christ. A new encouragement was 
felt, in preaching the law and the gospel, from the expec- 
tation that hearers would be converted, and would be able 
to exhibit credible evidence of having passed from death 
unto life. Church members, also, could not all escape 
the question, so pungently asked by some in our own 
days, ' What reason have I to think myself a Christian ? ' 

Intelligence of the revival in this country arrested the 
attention of a multitude in England and Scotland. Ed- 
wards wrote a narrative, under the title of ' : Surprising 
Conversions." — which was published in London, "with 
an Introduction by Drs. Watts and Guise." It was soon 
reprinted in Boston, and was extensively read, and exerted 
a powerful influence in both hemispheres. 

In 1740, revivals commenced anew at Northampton, 
Boston, and many other places, very nearly at the same 
time, and spread within a year and a half throughout all 
the English colonies. For some time, there was most evi- 
dently a silent, powerful, and sublime work of the Spirit 



35 

of God. Whitefield came, and preached like Peter on 
the day of Pentecost. Afterwards, the intemperate zeal 
of some preachers, like Davenport, with excesses of vari- 
ous kinds, gave occasion to open and violent contention 
in some towns, and, perhaps, in none more unhappily 
than in Boston. 

Just in the hour of need, the great and good Edwards 
applied his gigantic powers, in a searching and refining 
operation, that all who would, might see the difference 
between the precious and the vile. His work, entitled 
" Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England, 
and the way in which it ought to be acknowledged and 
promoted," — begins and ends, as if his soul had been 
bathing for years in the " pure river of water of life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
the Lamb." 

Of the most respectable ministers in New England, 
New York, and New Jersey, one hundred and sixty 
united in a public attestation to the genuineness and 
purity of the Revival, in most places ; while they joined 
with Mr. Edwards, in censuring and deploring those 
improprieties and excesses, which had given the enemies 
of God much occasion to blaspheme. Among these, I 
am grateful to know, was my honored father's godly 
grand-parent, — the Rev. Francis Worcester, who was at 
the time the pastor of the Second Church, in your neigh- 
boring town of Sandwich. An intimate acquaintance, 
and sometimes a fellow-traveller with Whitefield, he 
afterwards was a very successful evangelist and home 
missionary, in the more destitute parts of New England. 

Those excellent men could not counteract, as they de- 
sired, the untoward effect of the spirit of controversy, 
which had been inflamed, and which has always proved 
fatal to the progress of a revival. As the Holy Spirit 
operates through the truth, as in Jesus, and the truth 
must be kept distinctly before the mind, that the legiti- 



36 

mate effect may be produced. — it is obvious, that what- 
ever serves to divert the attention of the anxious inquirer 
from the truth itself in its manifestation to the conscience. 
will inevitably be injurious, if not fatal, to the progress of 
the work of grace. It is thus, that discussions on the 
subject of baptism have sometimes put an immediate end 
to a revival. 

Hence, from the controversy which was occasioned, 
the Great Awakening appeared, in 1743. to have come 
to its close. It had wrought, however, a " great salva- 
tion : ;; for " it was the Lord's doing." And well might 
it be u marvellous " in the eyes of his people, notwith- 
standing all which they had seen or heard of human 
imperfections and extravagances. " Those who had the 
best means of judging," says a learned and careful writer. 
" estimated the number of true converts, as proved by 
their subsequent lives, at 30,000. in New England alone, 
at a time when the whole population was but 300.000: 
besides many thousands more among the Presbyterians oi 
New York ; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the more 
southern settlements." 

It was, then, as you may see, a result, which you will 
the more vividly apprehend, if you just consider, that it 
would be like adding to the churches in Massachusetts, 
within the next three years, — SO, 000 persons, young and 
old, — and of such as would continue to sustain a Christian 
character : and to the churches throughout the Union, 
not less than eighteen hundred thousand ! ! 

The more I reflect upon the subject, the more am I 
persuaded, that no inconsiderable part of that which 
makes the true glory of New England, and which to 
human eye affords the brightest promise of the world's 
hastening and approaching salvation, would never have 
had an existence, but for those marvellous years of the 
right hand of the Most High. 

I do not wonder that Edwards was led to believe, that 



37 

the millennium was to begin in New England. Most 
cordially did he respond to the proposal by the churches 
of Scotland, in 1746, for a Concert of Prayer for the 
Conversion of the World. And after being dismissed 
from Northampton, it was in the true spirit of missions, 
that he took charge of a church and school of Indians, at 
Stockbridge. 

There were of old mighty men and men of renown. 
But who among " the fathers " was equal to him ? And 
where now is his equal ? His work on " Original Sin," 
his unanswerable Treatise on the " Will," his " His- 
tory of Redemption," his analysis of the " Affections," 
are theological classics, of priceless value, and their 
influence is incalculable. David Brainerd, the most 
illustrious missionary in those times of extraordinary 
reviving, has never had his superior upon the earth, in 
all the essential qualities of an ambassador for God in 
Christ's stead. The wonders of divine grace were no- 
where more wonderful, in all the wide extent of the 
memorable visitation of God : s covenant love, than among 
the Indian tribes to whom he ministered in New Jersey. 
To pray for the conversion of the whole world, in the 
concert of prayer recommended the year previous by the 
churches of Scotland, was, in 1747, the farewell injunc- 
tion of that lamented man of God, when he fell asleep in 
Jesus. And who can tell how many, less known by their 
memoirs, or by any other witness, than Henry Martyn 
and Robert Murray McCheyne, have been awakened or 
stimulated to a holier devotedness, by the refulgent and 
inextinguishable lustre of David Brainerd's example in 
imitation of Christ ! 

Much of missionary spirit was enkindled in the Revival 
of 1740. Hence the Indian school of Rev. Eleazer 
Wheelock, at Lebanon, Conn. ; designed to educate 
preachers to the Indians. Hence other efforts which 



38 

cannot be specified. And if the French war and the 
Revolutionary war had not so soon followed, and so 
occupied all classes, very much more would undoubtedly 
have been attempted and accomplished. Nothing can be 
plainer, to my own view, than that the churches and 
people of New England grew and prospered, according as 
they enjoyed revivals of religion ; and that in proportion 
as the spirituality of the churches was advanced or 
retarded, the active interest in missionary toils and 
sacrifices was evinced or suspended. 

In 1745. Whitefield preached at Boston before the 
New England army, — I had almost called them "a sacra- 
mental host," — which was just embarking for Louisburg, 
under command of Sir William Pepperell. The expedition 
was undertaken as in "a war of the Lord," against the 
< ; man of sin," and the power of mystical " Babylon." 
For wherever France prevailed, there Romanism and 
Jesuitism followed, — the Romanism and Jesuitism of the 
bloody night of Saint Bartholomew's. Unnumbered 
prayers, therefore, went up to the "Lord of Sabaoth." 
The triumph was as when Jerusalem had deliverance 
from Rabshakeh, and Sennacherib : — or as when the 
Maccabees returned to the holy city, after the overthrow 
of the legions of the ferocious Antiochus of Syria, who 
had sworn to exterminate the worshippers of Jehovah 
from every foot of soil in the land of promise. 

From the capture of Louisburg to the fall of Quebec, 
— thence to the Peace of 1783, — and thence to 1795, 
when the volcano of the first French Revolution sent its 
lurid glare and desolating lava over the civilized world, — 
the Christian people of New England and of all the 
Colonies, for more than half of the whole period, had no 
rest from the alarms of war. Their patriotism was one 
with their piety. Tens of thousands went forth to battle, 
or suffered privations and hardships, with as pure a prill- 



39 

ciple of duty, and as firm a reliance upon the mighty- 
God of Jacob, as ever emboldened and sustained those 
Hebrew worthies, " who through faith subdued king- 
doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped 
the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, 
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were 
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
armies of the aliens ! " 

There were earthly and ungodly elements that min- 
gled in the strife. But if it had not been for the religious 
element ; if it had not been for the baptism, into which 
the " children's children " had been baptized, — never, 
never, could the materials have been furnished for such 
volumes of history, — never have been known such unex- 
ampled occasion for the gratitude of posterity and the 
world, to them and to their fathers, and to their own and 
their fathers' God. 

It would not be difficult to draw a portraiture, with 
some dark lines and shadows. Influences of evil, both in 
opinion and practice, were powerfully at work, in secret 
and in open day. Perhaps none were more decisive upon 
a part of the clergy, than the imported publications of 
Whitby, Taylor and Enilyn. The Socinian "Inquiries" 
of the latter were reprinted in Boston, without any re- 
sponsible editor ; — but not without a strong surmise of the 
real patron, in an eloquent minister of the city. But with 
all that was sadly incompatible with the " free course " of 
the gospel ; with all that was positively demoralizing ; — 
the foundations of the " fathers " remained, as unmoved 
as the everlasting hills. 

Although in the .metropolis and some of the interior 
towns, there was more of Arminius than of Calvin, both 
in the study and in the pulpit, if not also as much of 
Arius as of Arminius, or as much of Socinus and Taylor 
as of Edwards and Athanasius ; yet a vast majority of the 
New England churches would not endure any other than 



40 

" sound doctrine " as they understood it, and would not 
support any other than liberally educated and strictly 
evangelical pastors. The theological system of the elder 
Edwards had most able advocates. His own son, a 
greater reasoner with somewhat less of the native power 
of reason than the father, vindicated New England divini- 
ty with amazing force of moral demonstration. There 
were others, like Bellamy, Smalley, Backus, West, Hop- 
kins, Emmons, who were as the cedars of Lebanon to the 
trees of the field. 

During the period from 1745 to 1795, the state of re- 
ligion, according to the standard of the fathers, was, per- 
haps, nowhere more unpromising, than in the easterly 
part of Massachusetts, and within the limits of a great 
portion of the oldest churches. It may be accounted for, 
by the more immediate and frequent intercourse with 
foreigners, who had but little favor for experimental god- 
liness ; by the encouragement which a few distinguished 
names afforded to the open opposers of the "New Lights," 
as some chose to designate the friends of the " Great 
Awakening ; " and by an ambiguous and indefinite mode 
of preaching, which naturally resulted from a real, but 
generally covert, hostility to the Trinitarian and Calvinis- 
tic forms of belief. There was no revival of any note, in 
any of the Congregational churches of the city of Boston, 
from the period of the revival of 1740, almost to our own 
day. With very inconsiderable exceptions, the same re- 
mark may be made of Salem, and other towns on the sea- 
coast. 

It was far otherwise in many places. There was not 
by any means such an apparent suspension of divine in- 
fluence in reviving and enlarging the churches of New 
England, as has sometimes been represented. In the fifty 
years previous to the remarkable season of " refreshing," 
at the close of the last century, there were numerous in- 
sulated revivals, — as has been abundantly attested by re- 



41 

cent investigations ; and also some that were contiguous 
or nearly associated, throughout all that period. There 
were no magazines or religious newspapers to report them ; 
and hence mainly the mistake of some, who have sup- 
posed that there were few or none to report. Besides, 
many of the revivals were in towns which had but little 
communication with the capital. 

When, however, the eyes of the Christian world were 
turned with consternation to the atheistical revolution in 
France, the pious people of this country, and nowhere 
more than in New England, gave themselves to prayer. 
There was also a new searching of the Scriptures, that, 
if possible, it might be known what God was about to re- 
veal in his providence. From a concurrence or combina- 
tion of causes, which cannot now be particularly described, 
the delightful tokens of a brighter day cheered the anxious 
and quivering hearts of the faithful in Christ Jesus. Re- 
vivals began to increase in number and in power. And 
soon it seemed as if the years of the former generation 
were again to pass over the land. 

From 1797 and onward, so many revivals were enjoyed 
in the churches, that an eminent minister in Connecticut, 
as he stood at his door, could count upwards of seventy 
contiguous congregations, which all had participated in 
the outpouring from the gracious presence of the Lord. 
In different parts of New England, there were hundreds 
of ministers, whose hearts were gladdened by this great 
l( refreshing." Some of them had personal recollections 
of the awakening of 1740, with which they gratefully 
compared the present auspicious visitation. Many had 
previously had, in some instances, a rich experience from 
Him, who "giveth the increase." Some, who were in 
the vigor of manhood, had seen the promise of the Spirit, 
like " the small rain upon the tender herb," but never be- 
fore as a " mighty rushing wind." Others knew of revi- 
vals chiefly from records, which were fast growing old, and 
6 



42 

going to decay. But when it is remembered, that there 
were so man}* churches ready for the wondrous ministra- 
tion of the Spirit, and so many pastors qoai .":: : : . to act as 
co-workers with ••the Lord of the harvest."' he who writes 
the history of the Puritan Pilgrims of New England and 
their ■• children's children," may have ample evidence if 
he will but find it. that, in the fifty 01 more years previous 
to the close of the eighteenth century, by far the larger 
part of churches and ministers were ol one mind and 
spirit with the ;; fathers." in their doctrinal and practical 
religion. 

Id the midst oi those revivals near the close of the 
eighteenth century, the missionary spirit, as a legitimate 
consequence ; received a new impulse. Evangelical Chris- 
tians, across the Atlantic, had sent missionaries to India. 
Africa, and the islands ol the South Pacific. Intelligence 
of their operations was hailed in New England with a 
lively gratitude. It is not strange that none went forth 
from our churches, to other continents or to the distant 
islands that were waiting for God's law. There was a 
loud call for more service at home, than could be rendered. 
The emigration to the wilderness of Maine, to Middle and 
Western New York, to Ohio, and to other parts of the 
Mississippi Valley, urged a powerful claim upon the be- 
nevolent sympathies of those who remained at home, fast 
by the old foundations. With many the thought was too 
painful for endurance, that the new settlements should be 
formed without the institutions of the gospel, and a com- 
petent supply of the means ol grace. 

Hence arose such societies, as the Connecticut Mission- 
ary Society, and the Massachusetts Missionary Society. 
This latter society was not at the beginning, nor for 
twenty years afterwards, what it now is. a domestic or 
home missionary society, but was organized upon the 
broad basis of a foreign missionary association. ••' The 
object of this society.'' says the constitution, adopted May? 



43 

1799, i: is to diffuse the knowledge of the gospel among 
the heathens, as well as other people in the remote parts of 
our country, where Christ is seldom or never preached.''' 

" Where Christ is seldom or never preached 1 " in- 
quired the Rev. Joshua Spaulding, then pastor of the 
Tabernacle Church : " if that is your object, you should 
send missionaries to Boston ! " For two or three years, 
he had been urging his ministerial and lay brethren to 
form a society for missions at their very doors, as within 
the limits of Marblehead. at Boston, and m other places, 
where, as he believed. "Christ was seldom or never 
preached," as hundreds needed to hear ! 

It is remarkable, that his idea of city ?nissions has now 
been adopted, with great interest and effect. But the 
Massachusetts Missionary Society, which owed its origin 
as much or more to him, than to any other single indi- 
vidual, could never have been formed, but with the dis- 
tinct contemplation of a much more extended circum- 
ference for a field of labor. 

The first address of the society breathes the genuine 
spirit of the charge from Mount Olivet. Recognizing 
" the glorious gospel of Christ as the adequate and only 
medium of recovering lost sinners to God and happiness," 
and responding to " the grand commission which Christ 
gave to his primitive disciples," the address " entreats " 
all " Christian brethren, in view of their immense in- 
debtedness to redeeming grace, their solemn covenant 
vows, their accountability and their hopes, to cast the eye 
of attentive observation upon the condition of thousands 
and millions of our guilty race, in other countries and in 
our own. particularly among the heathen tribes, and on 
the frontiers of the United States, forming a vast line of 
new settlements, peculiarly embarrassed with respect to 
their religious interests and local circumstances; and ask 
whether, when their danger is so great, when their spirit- 
ual wants are so urgent, when there is so much zeal on 



44 

the part of wickedness, infidelity and atheism, counter- 
acting the gospel — there be not reason to put forth every 
exertion for the spread of that precious gospel, which is 
the grand charter of our eternal inheritance." 

The society was thus brought into the closest affinity 
and fellowship with others in Great Britain, like the 
Society for the Propagation of Christian knowledge in 
Scotland, — under the auspices of which the missionaries 
Sergeant and Kirkland were laboring among the Indian 
tribes in Western Massachusetts and New York ; and part 
of which were then as far from Boston, as are now the 
tribes west of the Mississippi. If the means could have 
been procured, establishments precisely similar to those 
now sustained by the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, might have been organized and 
cherished, in the strictest accordance with the purpose of 
the Massachusetts Missionary Society. And the simple 
fact is, that it was not until long after the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed, that 
this society and others, which are now purely home socie- 
ties, were understood to be such, in the present accepta- 
tion of the term. By a missionary society, was meant an 
association to spread the gospel through all the world, by 
preaching it in any accessible region or place, where 
" Christ is seldom or never preached." And the Massa- 
chusetts Missionary Society, was a society of Massachu- 
setts missionary men ; not a missionary society for Mas- 
sachusetts ! 

In June, 1803, appeared the first number of the Massa- 
chusetts Missionary Magazine, — in which there is the 
same foreign missionary spirit and general character, as 
you now see in the Missionary Herald. But what a 
change in forty-five years ! If any one would see an 
amazing contrast, and the thrilling demonstration of an 
immense progress in the enterprise of the world's evan- 
gelization, let him read some of the last numbers of the 



45 

Herald of the American Board, and some of the first of 
the Magazine of the Massachusetts Missionary Society. 

And let him compare also the Massachusetts Mission- 
ary Society, in 1800, with its two or three missionaries, 
a part of the year, with the present American Home 
Missionary Society, with its more than one thousand 
missionaries from the Aroostook to Oregon and Cali- 
fornia ! 

So rapidly did the missionary spirit advance, after 
intelligence of foreign and domestic operations was 
brought before the churches, that in 1804, the constitu- 
tion of the society was modified, so that the article 
defining the object was made to read ; — " The object of 
the society is, to diffuse the gospel among the people of 
the newly settled and remote parts of our country, among 
the Indians of the country, and through more distant 
regions of the earth, as circumstances shall invite, and 
the ability of the society shall admit." And if the men 
could have been had, and the money could have been 
obtained, missionaries could have been sent by the Massa- 
chusetts Missionary Society to Bombay, Ceylon, or the 
Sandwich Islands, just as constitutionally as they were 
afterwards sent by the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions. 

This great organization came into form and life, in the 
year 1810. It was necessary to unite the friends of mis- 
sions in all the land, and under the sign and seal of an 
American, rather than a State designation, to solicit con- 
tributions from all the churches of the Union, with 
express reference to missions in Asia, and among the far- 
distant Gentiles of other parts of the known world. 
Other Societies followed, one after another, as the eyes of 
God's people were opened and enlightened. 

The first missionaries of the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreign Missions, were from the Theologi- 
cal Seminary at Andover, — an institution which owed its 



46 

origin, chiefly, to the alarm which was felt, after the suc- 
cessor of Dr. Tappan was appointed at Harvard. The 
oldest and most venerable college of the land, — which 
was so early and so piously dedicated to "Christ and the 
Church,"— had received a Professor of Theology, who 
taught a very different mode of doctrine from that of the 
" fathers." Yet it has been said by those who ought to 
be acknowledged as indisputable authority, that if at that 
time he had avowed himself to be what he undoubtedly 
was, and what afterwards he freely admitted, he could 
not have been chosen to be the incumbent of a chair, 
which, by the express provision of the pious Hollis, was 
never to be filled, but by a man " of sound or orthodox 
sentiments"! What was meant by such sentiments, 
there is no more reason to doubt, than there is to deny 
that there ever was any such man as Hollis. The pur- 
pose of his donation should be sacredly regarded ; or the 
trust should be relinquished. 

Far be it from me to speak invidiously or any wise 
reproachfully. It is but sober, candid history that I 
would write of the past. But the truth, once denied 
with no ordinary vehemence if not virulence, is now fully 
conceded, viz : — that in all but one of the Congregational 
churches in Boston, and in perhaps fifty others elsewhere, 
there was a concealment of the real sentiments of the 
pastors, It was not until 1815, and after a most exciting 
controversy, that that " concealment" which had been so 
vigilantly and sagaciously maintained, for nearly or quite 
a whole generation, was no longer possible. And it cer- 
tainly is a consideration, of some historical interest, if not 
theological importance, that the same mode of religious 
doctrine which was thus introduced and fostered in New 
England, had a similar introduction and development in 
Old England, in Scotland, in Holland, in Switzerland, 
and in Germany. 

More than thirty years have now passed, since what 



47 

those most interested prefer to call " Liberal Christianity " 
has been openly and eloquently defended in this country. 
Talents, wealth, literature, refinement, with other power- 
ful auxiliaries, have not been wanting. And now what 
is the prospect, that in any of its modes or forms, it will 
ever supplant the faith of the " fathers " among the 
" children's children " ? And if this will not supplant 
that faith, what form of doctrine will ? 

According to returns and estimates,* a few years since, 
there were in the United States, nearly fifty thousand 
churches, Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Meth- 
odist, and Baptist. But according to the best authorities, 
the whole number of Unitarian churches or congrega- 
tions,! throughout the country, at the present time, is 
about two hundred and forty ! Three-fifths of these are 
in Massachusetts alone j and quite a proportion of them 
are very small. Not one half of the number were gath- 
ered and organized, as Unitarian. Ninety of them exist 
within the limits of the old evangelical organizations. 

Of more than seven hundred Congregational churches 
in Massachusetts, at the present time, nearly five hundred 
and fifty are orthodox. And of these, full two hundred 
and twenty-five have been gathered within the last twen- 
ty-five years ! The number of other Congregational 
churches has, in the same period, remained nearly station- 
ary ! And the proportion of communicants in the ortho- 
dox Congregational churches, is very much greater ; be- 
ing, at a moderate calculation, as ten to one ! 

In general, also, the efficiency of the evangelical Con- 
gregational churches has been vastly augmented. It is as 
yet susceptible of a ten fold, if not a hundred fold aug- 
mentation. Upon all the great points of doctrinal dis- 
pute, there is a feeling that the work of public controversy 
is finished. We have a far more congenial work to do, — ■ 

* Baird's Religion in America. t Unitarian Almanac, &c. 



48 

in carrying forward the numerous enterprises of true 
evangelical charity. 

There is no antidote to error, like the truth as in Jesus, 
when it comes upon the conscience, in demonstration of 
the Spirit. Hence there is no available power, like a 
genuine revival, to give the advantage and the victory to 
the friends of the Saviour. Most abundant and most 
striking has been the witness of this, in the progress 
which evangelical religion has made in our Common- 
wealth, within twenty-five years. 

Look at Boston, and see what it is, as compared with 
what it was forty and thirty years since. Look over all 
New England, and see what mode of religious sentiment 
has the sway over the masses. Make the most that you 
can out of all the various sects and names, which are 
antagonistical to the faith, or at variance with the eccle- 
siastical order of the founders of New England. You 
will find a most decided preponderance of the intellectual 
and the moral strength of their descendants, where they 
would wish, above all things, that it should be ; — uphold- 
ing and advancing the institutions of " the glorious 
gospel," and " the glorious liberty of the children of 
God." 

An hour more would scarcely suffice, that I should only 
name our largest associations of Christian philanthropy, — 
which every day are adding new gems or a brighter 
effulgence to the " crown " of the rejoicing of " the 
fathers," at the coming of the Lord. 

And, my brethren, as we now look back upon the past, 
and around upon the present, how can we despair of the 
Religion of the " fathers ? " Can we with such semina- 
ries of learning and theology, — more than forty of the 
latter existing, where we had but one, forty years ago ; 
with such increasing advantages of popular education ; 
with such an immense distribution of the Bible and of 
books illustrative of the Bible ; with so many thousand 



49 

evangelical churches, and so many hundred thousand chil- 
dren, taught the "words" which are "spirit and life," — 
every Sabbath day ? What Religion, what Doctrine is 
it, which more than twenty-five thousand ministers are 
preaching in the thirty States of this Union ? Radically 
and essentially the Religion of faith in the atoning blood 
of an All-sufficient, because Almighty Redeemer ; and 
the Doctrine, that " God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only -begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

I have no time to enlarge. My limits are more than 
occupied already. But from the review now presented of 
our New England history, you will not, I trust, think of me, 
as uttering more than the words of truth and soberness, 
when I proclaim the sentiment, that of all people in the 
world, we are under the highest obligations to support 
munificently, and communicate to the ends of the earth, 
the knowledge and the institutions of the " everlasting 
gospel." 

The period during which our country has so amazingly 
developed our resources of every description, most need- 
ful and important, for the sustenance, protection, and 
exaltation of a more intelligent, more benevolent, more 
powerful, because more Christian people, than has ever 
existed, — has been the period since the great battle of 
Waterloo. Peace has blessed our land, and so far other 
nations also, that a vastly greater proportion of well- 
educated or of aspiring mind, than ever before, since the 
world began, has been employed in devising ways and 
means, by which labor shall have the largest ratio of 
product with the least amount of physical or mental 
exhaustion ; and by which all the powers of nature shall 
be constrained to pay their richest and noblest tribute to 
him, who was "made" but "a little lower than the 
angels"; and thus the world receive the fullest demon-- 
7 



50 

stration, that he who fell with "the first man,"' rises by 
" the second " — " the Lord from heaven," — higher and 
higher in the original dignity and grandeur of his immor- 
tal nature, — recovering and re-assuming one measure after 
another of his lost dominion over the whole inferior 
creation. 

When before were such opportunities, facilities, and 
incitements to mental and moral activity, afforded to so 
large a number, as now constitute the substantial and 
reliable portions of our community ? Since Europe has 
been brought within less than twelve days from our 
greatest cities ; and the magnetic telegraph outstrips the 
sun, by thousands of miles per hour, — what next may we 
not expect to see, among the merely "incidental benefits" 
as they were termed by Robert Hall, — " which Christian- 
ity scatters along her way in her sublime march to 
immortality ? " What a spectacle are we now as a 
nation ? And what is yet to be ? 

When Calvin was dying, he reached his emaciated 
hand towards an open Bible ; — " there is the safety of the 
Church and the State ! " So felt the " fathers " of New 
England, to their inmost soul. In the Bible — Old Testa- 
ment and New — one and inseparable, — they found the 
Rock of Ages. They lived and they died, triumphantly 
" looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing 
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; who 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zeal- 
ous of good works." 

Let us, therefore, as their children's children, cherish 
like precious faith ; and with them give God the glory of 
all that we have, and all that we hope. Let us send the 
gospel to the farthest bounds of the globe. It is the 
greatest gift, which man can impart to his brother man. 



51 

It is God's appointed method for the intellectual, moral, 
civil, and political regeneration of ail the various nations 
and tribes of the earth : as well as for the personal salva- 
tion of each individual, whatever his honor or dishonor, 
his wealth or poverty, his virtue or his corruption, his 
enjoyment or his wretchedness. 

In fulfilling the grand commission of our ascending 
Saviour and Lord, we would begin at our own Jerusalem. 
We would remember those who are like sheep in the wil- 
derness, without a shepherd ; and as we the more remem- 
ber them, would still the less forget the famishing and the 
perishing upon the dark mountains of far-distant idolatries 
and cruel sorrows. We would publish the adorable name 
of Jesus to every creature. And that the children who 
will take our places may have our exalted and priceless 
privileges unimpaired ; that those thousands, those mil- 
lions who are following "the star of empire" westward 
to the Pacific shores, may never lose sight of the " Bright 
and Morning Star"; that the mighty people that now 
are, and all that may arise from them, or be added to 
them, may be mightier far in the eyes of all the world, 
and in the sight of the Supreme Lawgiver and the Judge 
of all, be "a wise and understanding people " ; — may 
we all most gratefully honor the memory of our fathers, 
and with the same love of Christ and of souls, the same 
faith and hope, may we enter into their labors. And the 
greater the number, the unanimity, the energy, and the 
unfaltering resolution and perseverance of those who thus 
enter into their labors, — the greater is the moral certainty, 
that, for all ages to come, the Scripture will here have a 
most magnificent and sublime witness, — that " chil- 
dren's CHILDREN ARE THE CROWN OF OLD MEN, AND THE 



GLORY OF CHILDREN ARE THEIR FATHERS 



» ! 



APPENDIX 



It has been designed in the foregoing pages, to exhibit " The Pilgrims " 
and " The Fathers," in their true evangelical spirit ; and to present a rapid, 
yet distinct outline of the ecclesiastical history of New England, in some- 
what more of a missionary point of view, than has been common. Some 
passages of the Discourse were omitted, at the time it was delivered. 

The day was very unfavorable for a large gathering, and but a small 
number assembled in the house of God. There were just about as many 
present, as the whole number of the emigrants, who came in the May- 
flower ; which, some may forget, was one hundred and one. But there 
was a grandeur in the scene, as the storm sounded from the ocean and 
above the summits of the hills, which few would venture to describe. All 
nature around seemed to unite in the celebration of the " Landing of the 
Pilgrims." No one who joined in the religious exercises, could have 
needed much aid to his imagination and sensibilities, as he silently remem- 
bered those, whom he had come to honor, — when, 
Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard and the sea ! 
And the sounding aisles of* the dim woods rang 
To the anthem of the free ' 

[p. 9.] 

The Pilgrims, before they landed, made a civil compact, as follows : 

" In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are vnder- written, the 
loyall Subiects of our dread soveraigne Lord King Iames, by the grace 
of God of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the 
Faith, &c. 

"Having vnder-taken for the glory of God, and advancement of the 
Christian Faith, and honour of our King and Countrey, a Voyage to plant 
the first Colony in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents 
solemnly & mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant, 
and combine our selues together into a civill body politike, for our better 
ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and by 
vertue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such iust and equall Lawes, 
Ordinances, acts, constitutions, offices from time to time, as shall be 
thought most meet and convenient for the generall good of the Colony ; 
vnto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnesse 
whereof we haue here-vnder subscribed our names. Cape Cod, 11th of 
November, in the yeare of the raigne of our sovraigne Lord King Iames, of 
England, France, and Ireland, i 8. and of Scotland 54. Anno Domino 1620." 

" The elder President Adams," says Dr. Pierce in his recent Election 
Sermon, " was in the habit of referring to this compact, as the germ of our 
republican institutions." 

It does not appear, that the Pilgrims had any very definite idea of the 
manner in which they should attempt to manage civil affairs, until they 
were on the very point of disembarking. 

" This day before we came to harbour, obseruing some not well affected 
to vnitie and concord, but gaue some appearance of faction, it was thought 
good there should be an association and agreement, that we should combine 
together in one body, and to submit to such government and governours, 
as we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set our 
hands to this that followes word for word." 

But in their ecclesiastical action, as church-members upon the basis of 
equality and fraternity, and in their " Town-Meetings," we cannot fail to 



53 

recognize what Mr. Bancroft has called " the seminal principles of republi- 
can freedom and national independence." If, however, they had found 
the river Hudson, for which they had searched, they would have been so 
near the limits of the Virginia Company, that they might not have formed 
the Compact, " which," as Dr. Cheever justly remarks in his recent 
work, — " whatever may have been their original intention or foresight, 
constituted them a self- governing republic, although named 'loyal subjects 
of our dread sovereign lord, King James.' " * 

Yet it is to be remembered, that the real purpose of the founders of our 
civil and political institutions was religious, in the strictest sense of the 
term. This is indicated by the first words of the above Compact. Else- 
where the witness is most explicit. The reasons for leaving Holland are 
" recited," says Morton's Memorial, " as received from themselves." 

" First, Because themselves were of a different Language from the Dutch, 
where they Lived, and were settled in then way, insomuch that in ten 
years time, whilst their Church sojourned amongst them, they could not 
bring them to reform the neglect of Observation of the Lord's Day as a Sab- 
bath, or any other thing amiss amongst them. 

" Secondly, Because their Countrymen, who came over to joyn with 
them, by reason of the hardness of the Country, soon spent their Estates, 
and were then forced either to return back to England, or to live very 
meanly. 

" Thirdly, That many of their Children, through the extream necessity 
that was upon them, altho' of the best dispositions, and graciously inclined, 
and willing to bear part of their Parents burthens, were oftentimes so oppres- 
sed with their heavy labours, that although their Spirits were free and wil- 
ling, yet their Bodies bowed under the weight of the same, and became de- 
crepid in their early youth, and the vigour of Nature consumed in the very 
bud. And that which was very lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy 
to be born, was, that many by these occasions, and the great licentiousness 
of Youth in that Country, and the manifold temptations of the place, were 
drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses, 
getting the reins on their necks, and departing from their Parents : Some 
became Souldiers, others took upon them far Voyages by Sea, and other- 
some worse courses tending to dissoluteness, and the destruction of their 
Souls, to the great grief of their Parents, and the dishonour of God ; and 
that the place being of great licentiousness and liberty to Children, they 
could not educate them, nor could they give them due correction without 
reproof or reproach from their Neighbours. 

" Fourthly, That their Posterity would in few generations become Butch 
and so lose their interest in the English Nation ; they being desirous rather 
to enlarge His Majesties Dominions, and to live -under their Natural 
PRINCE. 

" Fifthly and lastly, and which was not the least, a great hope and in- 
ward Zeal they had of laying some good Foundation, or at least to make 
some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancement of the Gospel of 
the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the World, yea, altho' they 
should be but as stepping stones unto others for the performance of so 
great a Work." 

In the Preamble of the Articles of Confederation, in 1643, it is said : 
" Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same 
end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace," &c. (Win- 
throp's Journal.) 

[p. 11.] 

For illustrations of these statements, see Baird's "Religion in America," 
" Synopsis of Missions," Morse and Parish's History of New England, 
Thomas Robbins's " New England Fathers," &c. &c. But the subject de- 
mands more attention, than it has ever received. 

[p. 12. See Note, p. 31.] 



•" :■ 54 
[p. 14-j 

The Records of the First Church., previous to 1660, are supposed to be 
lost. Iu the Eecords of the Tabernacle Church, there is a Transcript of a 
Pamphlet entitled, " A Copy of the Church Covenants which have been 
used in the Church of Salem, formerlv, and in then late reviewing of the 
Covenant on the day of the Public Fast, April loth, 1680. * * * 
Boston, printed at the desire and for the use of many in Salem, for them- 
selves and children, by J. F., 1680." It begins as follows : — "There was 
a Church Covenant agreed upon and consented to by the Church of Salem 
at then- first beginning in the year 1629, Aug. 6th." 

" The following Covenant was propounded by the Pastor, was agreed 
upon and consented to by the brethren of the Church, in the year 1636. 

" We whose names are here underwritten, members of the present 
Church of Christ in Salem, having found by sad experience how dangerous 
it is to sit loose from the covenant we make with our God, and how apt we 
are to wander into by-paths, even unto the loosing (losing :) of our first 
aims in entering into church fellowship ; do therefore solemnly in the 
presence of the eternal God, both for our own comforts, and those who 
shall or may be joined unto us, renew the Church Covenant we find this 
Church bound unto at their first beginning, viz : ' That we covenant with the 
Lord, and one with another, and do bind ourselves in the presence of God, 
to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal him- 
self unto us in his blessed word of truth ; ' and do more explicitly, in the 
name and fear of God, profess and protest to walk as followeth, through the 
power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

" 1. We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, 
in the truth and simplicity of our spirits. 

" 2. We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of his 
grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying of us in matters of worship 
and conversation, resolving to cleave unto him alone for life and glory, 
and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and institutions of men in his 
worship." 

The other articles are the same, as commonly published in what has 
erroneously been said, so many times, to be " doubtless the first Church 
Covenant ever drawn in America." 

In a printed Tract, without date, but undoubtedly issued in the year 
1680, we have the " Confession of Faith" with a form of "Covenant," 
" for substance," as adopted 6th of August, 1629. The expression "for 
substance" implies, of course, that the original was neither less in quantity, 
nor different in quality. The Tract may be found in the Boston Athenae- 
um, B. 76, Sermons. It is entitled, 

" A Direction for a public profession in the Church Assembly, after pri- 
vate examination by the elders. Which direction is taken out of the 
Scripture, and points unto that faith and covenant contained in the Scrip- 
ture. Being the same for substance which was propounded to and agreed 
upon by the Church of Salem, at their begining, the sixth of the sixth 
month, 1629." 

"THE CONFESSION OF FAITH. 

" I do believe with my heart and confess with my mouth. 

" Concerning God. — That there is but one only true God in three persons, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, each of them God, and all of 
them one and the same Infinite, Eternal God, most Holy, Just, Merciful 
and Blessed forever. 

" Concerning the works of God. — That this God is the Maker, Preserver 
and Governor of all things according to the counsel of his own will, and 
that God made man in his own Image, in Knowledge, Holiness and Right- 
eousness. 

" Concerning the fall of Man. — That Adam by transgressing the command 
of God, fell from God and brought himself and his posterity into a state of 
sin and death, under the wrath "and curse of God, which I do believe to be 
my own condition by nature as well as any other. 

" Concerning Jesus Christ. — That God sent his Son into the world, who 



55 

for our sakes became man, that he might redeem us and save us by his 
obedience unto death, and that he arose from the dead, ascended into 
heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God, from whence he shall come to 
judge the world. 

" Concerning the Holy Ghost. — That God the Holy Ghost hath fully re- 
vealed the doctrine of Christ and the will of God in the Scriptures of the 
Old and New Testament, which are the word of God, the perfect, perpet- 
ual, and only rule of our Faith and obedience. 

" Concerning the benefits we have by Christ. — That the same Spirit by 
working faith in God's Elect, applye.th unto them Christ with all his bene- 
fits of justification and sanctification unto salvation, in the use of those or- 
dinances which God hath appointed in his written word, which therefore 
ought to be observed by us unto the coming of Christ. 

" Concerning the Church of Christ. — That all true believers being commit- 
ted unto Christ as the head, make up one Mistical Church, which is the 
body of Christ, the members whereof, having fellowship with the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost by faith, and one with another in love, do receive 
here upon earth forgiveness of sins, with the life of grace, and at the resur- 
rection of the body they shall receive everlasting life. 
"THE COVENANT. 

" I do heartily take and avouch this one God who is made known to us in 
the Scripture, by the name of God the Father, and God the Son even Je- 
sus Christ, and God the Holy Ghost, to be my God, according to the tenour 
of the Covenant of Grace ; wherein he hath promised to be a God to the 
faithful and their seed after them in their generations, and taketh them to 
be his people, and therefore unfeignedly repenting of all my sins, I do give 
up myself wholly to this God, to believe in, to love, serve, and obey him 
sincerely and faithfully, according to his written word, against all the temp- 
tations of the devil, the world, and my own flesh, and this unto the death. 

" I do also consent to be a member of this particular Church, promising 
to continue steadfastly in fellowship with it, in the public worship of God, 
to submit to the Order, Discipline, and Goverment of Christ in it, and to 
the ministerial teaching, guidance and oversight of the Elders of it, and to 
the brotherly watch of the Fellow-Members ; and all this according to 
God's word and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, enabling me there- 
unto. Amen." 

[p. 26.] 
Robert Cushman, in his " Epistle Dedicatory " of his Sermon preached 
at Plymouth, in 1621, gives some geographical account of New England. 
He speaks of it as ' being Champion ground, but no high mountains, &c. ; 
full of Rivers and Sweet Springs, as England is. But principally, so far as 
we can yet find, it is an island, and near about the quantity of England, 
being cut out from the main Land in America, as England is from the main 
of Europe, by a great arm of the Sea, which entereth in forty Degrees, and 
runneth up North West and by West, and goeth out either into the South- 
Sea, or else into the Bay of Canada. The certainty whereof, and secrets of 
which, we have not yet so found as that as eye-witnesses we can make 
narration thereof, but if God give time and means, we shall, ere long, 
discover both the extent of that River, together with the secrets thereof ; 
and so try what Territories, Habitation, or Commodities, may be found, 
either in it, or about it.' 

[p. 31.] 
As it regards the difficulties with Roger Williams, and his true charac- 
ter, the reader is referred to several very able articles in the " Christian 
Observatory." The Editor has investigated the whole subject, in the most 
thorough manner. See also Dr. Cheever's " Journal of the Pilgrims," &c. 
Chap. XVIII. " Our fathers," says Mr. McClure, " turned Mr. Williams 
out of doors, because he was tearing their house to pieces. For perform- 



56 

ing this necessary act of self-preservation, Ave leave them to be -vindicated 
by John Quincy Adams, that foe of bigotry, and firm friend of civil and 
religions liberty. In a discourse published by bun some six years since, 
after a candid statement of the facts, he asks : ' Can we blame the found- 
ers of the Massachusetts Colony for banishing him from within then juris- 
diction r In the annals of religious persecution, is there to be found a 
martyr more gently dealt "with by thos*e against whom he began the war 
of intolerance r whose authority he persisted, even after professions of pen- 
itence and submission, in defying, till deserted even by the wife of his 
bosom r and whose utmost severity of punishment upon him was only an 
order for his removal as a nuisance from among them r ' " * * " Williams's 
colony was obliged to procure the help of Massachusetts in banishing the 
fanatical Gorton and his outlaws ; obtaining an illegal extension, over their 
own territory, of the very laws by which Williams was then excluded from 
Massachusetts. This hard necessity of theirs, may amply excuse the like 
necessity on the part of ' the people of the Bay.' " 

If any one will read Morton's account of the dismission of Roger Wil- 
liams from the Church of Plymouth, and of the subsequent proceedings at 
Salem and Boston, it will be seen, that the same view was taken of bim in 
both colonies. The Church " consented" to his dismission, " through the 
prudent counsel of Mr. Brewster, (the Ruling Elder there,) fearing that 
his continuance amongst them might cause divisions, and there being many 
able men in the Bay, they would better deal with him than tJiemselves could, 
and foreseeing (what he feared concerning Mr. Williams, which afterwards 
came to pass) that he would run the same course of rigid separation and 
Anabaptistry, which Mr. John .Smith, the Sebaptist at Amsterdam had 
done," &c. 

Roger Williams was not banished for being a Baptist. He never was a 
Baptist in Massachusetts, and but "for three months" in Rhode Island. 

In respect to the "intolerance" attributed to "the fathers," Dr. Cheev- 
er's remarks concerning the " Brownes " at Salem, are much to the pur- 
pose. Take, for example, a single paragraph. 

" ' I will be tolerant of every thing else,' said Mr. Coleridge, • but every 
other man's intolerance.' Now here it was plainly the intolerance of 
others, not their religion, of which Governor Endicott would not be tole- 
rant. And in this thing he and the colonists Avere evidently guided by 
Infinite Wisdom. Eor, if the churchmen had been permitted to go on, 
there would have been an end to this sanctuary of freedom in the wilder- 
ness. There would have been no New England in existence, in the history 
of which there should be scope for a sneer at the piety, or the freedom, or 
the superstition of its founders. Their not being suffered to go on, is the 
reason why they, and all other sects, even Bunyan's Giant Grim, with his 
nails pared, are here in quiet now. God, in his gracious divine providence, 
would not suffer any others than the persecuted Puritanic Dissenters to 
get footing here, until both in the Old World and the New, the great 
lesson of religious liberty had been more fully taught and understood. 
He had much light yet for Cromwell and the Independents of England to 
pour upon this question. The sneers at the course of our Pilgrim Fathers 
are sneers against the providence of God and the freedom of man." 

It was " in the Bay," that the innovating spirits were disposed to settle. 
The attractions to emigrants were very few at Plymouth. In ten years the 
Colony had but three hundred souls. And although it has sometimes been 
intimated, that the Church there was much more tolerant than the Churches 
" in the Bay," there really is no valid proof, as yet furnished, that there 
was any difference in principle, or prevailing opinions. And if there be 
any appearance in favor of Plymouth, it is at once explained by a differ- 
ence of the circumstances ; or the operation of such causes as make some 
men more " prudent" than others, and not unwilling to evade personal re- 
sponsibility, instead of acting with decision and firmness. 



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